Milkscreen

[steuard]

Waiting for Kim at the Walgreens pharmacy counter, I spotted a product that made me wonder if the store was engaging in some dark humor: Milkscreen: Breast milk alcohol test strips. If you've just had a night out on the town, don't worry! "Now, with milkscreen™, there is one simple and accurate method to let Mom know if her milk contains a level of alcohol that may negatively impact Baby."

When the pharmacist saw me staring at the box in disbelief, she said, "Oh, I know. Everyone looks at those that way." We all agreed that if a mother actually needed them it was good for them to exist, but we all also seemed to be thinking, "Why take the risk in the first place?"

For all you actual moms out there: Are these test strips brilliant, or disturbing?

Comments

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

What to Expect gave me nutritional nightmares. I far prefer Dr. Sears's The Pregnancy Book.

As for the Milkscreen idiocy: Alcohol is rare among drugs in that it passes freely back and forth between the mother's blood and her milk. However, this means that her milk will contain the same concentration of alcohol as her blood. Since the legal limit for driving in many communities is around 0.08% -- multiple orders of magnitude lower than the mildest beer -- this should not be a major concern. In the opinion of Dr. Jack Newman, the mother will become too inebriated to be a competent mother long before her milk becomes poisonous to her baby.

Newt